In conventional systems for transmitting optical data signals, electro-optical components (parts) whose frequency bandwidth corresponds to the data rate to be transmitted are used for transmitting signals of a predetermined frequency bandwidth over an optical data channel. Thus, in conventional systems for transmitting optical data signals, the data transmission rate or information rate with which data information is modulated onto an optical carrier is limited by the bandwidth of the used component parts. For example, for transmission rates of 10 Gbaud and 40 Gbaud, the necessary component parts allowing a data transmission rate of 10 or 40 Gbaud are commercially available. However, for higher data transmission rates of e.g. 100 Gbaud, component parts with a corresponding frequency bandwidth are not available.